A recent survey by the National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI) finds that apartment industry managers believe that continuing education courses and professional designation programs are worth the time and expense. When the costs and benefits are tallied up, the improvement in performance outweighs the price tag of getting there.

The institute conducted the survey earlier this year among 724 supervisors of employees who earned one of NAAEI’s designations: Certified Apartment Maintenance Technician (CAMT), Certified Apartment Portfolio Supervisor (CAPS), Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) and National Apartment Leasing Professional (NALP).

The survey found that 98 percent of all respondents agreed that the designation courses were a good use of company time and money; 76 percent said it was not an issue to have their employee out of the office to take the designation course; 86 percent of supervisors saw an improvement in employees’ work performance following completion of their designations; and 100 percent would enroll employees in designations in the future.

Granted, the people surveyed were already of a mentality that values education. As NAAEI Executive Vice President Maureen Lambe, CAE, tells MHN, “These people were self-selected to value education and be willing to make that investment and time in their employees.” In other words, if they didn’t value education, they wouldn’t be sending their employees to earn designations. Nevertheless, as an evaluation of these programs’ efficacy and value, the results were very encouraging.

“In some cases, the investment [of employers] was that they paid for the course 100 percent up front,” Lambe says. “It may have been that the employee paid and then the employee was reimbursed. Or in some cases it may have been that the employee paid but the supervisor provided them with the time to take the course.” Under any of these arrangements—whether the employee is providing money or time—it is important that he or she sees a return on that investment.

NAAEI will continue to conduct surveys that help determine whether its education programs are delivering the kind of skill sets that translate to what is needed on the job. So far the feedback is good and the employers are happy.